aside from the bible...?

Question

is there any account of the life of jesus from the time of jesus? shouldn't someone as controvercial as jesus have more written about him from many of his contemporaries? is there any critical analysis of him? is there anything written that does not speak in praise of him, but just gives an objective commentary on his life?

Answer 1

It's been proven by innumerable scholars since 12th century that Jesus never existed...

http://www.jesusneverexisted.com

Answer 2

This is no simple answer, regardless of what some may say.

Many scholars on the subject would say that the Bible is historical (New Testament in this instance), even though it has been changed over time for various reasons -really they are inaccurate translations of words crossing language barriers most of the time.
At any rate, aside from the Bible, the possible earliest text relating to Jesus is called The Gospel of Thomas. The dating is as close as 40 years after his death - contemporary or a little earlier than a few of the books in the NT. In the Thomas text there are what is believed to be direct quotes from Jesus mostly regarding his life on earth and how to go to God when you die.
Thomas is included in the Nag Hammadi Library - a codex if texts found near the Dead Sea. They are essentially stuff that didn't make it into the Bible, but were known to have been followed by many many groups.

Aside from that, "history" was written in a very different way than it is now. Today in text books you generally get straight historical fact -possibly somewhat biased depending on what country the writer lives in. Back then History was a kind of genera - influenced by novellas written during the time. They were very biased and really worked to present the historical facts they wanted the reader to believe in, often skewed to fit a set of beliefs and to make a hero stand out. Not fiction, but definitely not unbiased or nonobjective. And more often than not, history was not written down as it happened back then, it took years to get written down. By that time oral traditions had formed and the stories written down take on many different meanings and ideologies.

To get a more nonobjective idea of Jesus life, my suggestion is to do a vast amount of readings from a variety of people and cultures who wrote about him. You can read Josephus' writings of Jesus, Eusephius' Eclesiastical History, the NT, the Nag Hammadi Library texts, and some Roman commentators who did not like him.
And most importantly, read commentaries on Jesus' life and the texts around him from SCHOLARS who are experts in the field. Bart Ehrman is a professor at Chapel Hill and is an excellent read even for those who are not in college. Go to a college univeristy website, click on their library link, and then do a search for "Jesus" "Commentaries on Jesus" "Jesus Life" etc etc until you narrow down the results to what you want to know about. You will find that there are many many modern day books and articles you can get a hold of that take all of these historical writings into account to get an fairly accurate idea of Jesus' life.

And also, keep in mind that just because these things were not written down immediately does not make them invalid or untrue.

Answer 3

The Muslim Q'uran also speaks of Jesus, but only acknowledge him as a prophet and not God Himself. Then there is the Gnostic gospels (part of the Apocrypha texts) that refer to Jesus's life, however this contradicts the message of the Bible and were written many year later that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. These texts were written by gnostic scholars and not the disciples of Jesus or there scholars. Gnostiscm was regarded by the early church as a mixture of Christianity and Greek philosophy and declared a heresy.

Answer 4

One would assume so. Most of those that wrote about him did so after the late first century and well into the 3rd. Most of them would have written about him well after the gospels would have been "published" and circulated.

The Babylonian Talmud has a reference to a Jesus, but I don't know when that portion of it was written and the Jesus mentioned in it was held for 40 days before being stoned.

Several of the early writer's references to Jesus are clearly later insertions by misguided/sloppy clerks, and Josephus' reference is likely to be the same.

Answer 5

I've never heard of any outside sources speaking of Jesus, but that doesn't mean he didn't exist. Remember, this was a very turbulent time, and the Romans, who were governing areas, just treated him like any other criminal. Also, there were many men of the time claiming to be Messiahs--he did not stand out then as much as we might think now.

And to Samuri Jack, Christianity was originally a sect of Judaism--it was Paul who decided that even non-Jews could be Christians, in an effort to expand Christianity--he would have had a hard sell telling the Greeks and Romans that they would have to be circumcised and follow Jewish dietary requirements to become Christians.

Answer 6

I have never seen any contemporary accounts of anything to do with Jesus. Many people reference Josephus, who was not a contemporary and whose account was inserted by someone else anyway. There are those who also reference Pliny the Younger, who only references that there are Christians. As we all know, the fact that people believe something does not necessarily mean it is true.

Answer 7

BNTD07 has most of the references of the time and life of Christ, the other would also be the Quran, which not only mentions the fact taht Jesus existed, his great works and prophetic ability, it mentions His mother, and her place in their religion as a great woman, revered as well by Muslims.
So it is not only in Christian based books, and those who state there has never been outside or non Christian proof are lying to themselves since they have never done the research.

There was this Jewish scholar who set out to prove that Jesus did not exist and the evidence was so overwhelming that he converted and has written many books to prove just this.

Answer 8

There is nothing anywhere about him. But why should there be? He was just one of several holy men who either claimed to be the Messiah or who's followers made that claim on their behalf. For a man to be the Messiah he would have had to be high priest in the line of Arron and king in the line of David. Non of those in that time, or sense, have ever made that grade and that includes Jesus. Why he rose above the others is most likely do to the claim that he rose from the dead. Or the disciples were just better PR men and women.

Answer 9

As for an account of the life of Jesus from his contemporaries; the first four books of the New Testament are written by His disciples (the ones that 'hung out' with him--Matthew, Mark, Luke and John).

As for critical analysis of Him: hang out on these boards long enough and you find enough critical analysis of Him. I think if you went to Barnes and Noble you'd find many books supporting both sides of the fence.

Answer 10

He is alluded to in the Talmud as "Ben Pantera" (a play on the Greek for 'virgin'). There are the Letters of Abgarus--once thought completely spurious, until archeologists found that King Abgarus DID INDEED actually exist........ Besides, with the destruction of the Provincial Library at Caesarea, and eventually the Imperial Library at Rome, the Roman records would have been lost......

Answer 11

From Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, Paragraph 3, by Flavious Josephus:

"Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."